WOMEN IN ARCH CUNNINGHAM LIBRARY SPOTLIGHT:

Sara Mautino Assistant Professor of Library Science

During Design Week, the Cunningham Architecture Library partnered with the SoA student group ‘The Almighty S(he)’ to host a showcase highlighting our new Women in Architecture Collection. The collection includes hundreds of books and resources by women and about women in architecture. The effort to build the collection was initiated after recognizing women make up 45% of the student population at the OSU School of Architecture, but only 22% of licensed architects in the US are women. ¹ What are the driving forces behind the drop? The AIA released a report in 2021 titled The Elephant in the WellDesigned Room that explores bias in the Architecture profession. Coupling that information with results from the Spring 2021 Campus Climate survey from the OSU Cowboy Data Round-Up² provides a glimpse of the lived experience of the female students in the College of Engineering, Architecture & Technology. According to the data, 33% of women in CEAT personally experienced discrimination and ony 33% of women in CEAT believe all members of the college community at OSU are treated equitably, regardless of gender. An overwhelming majority of the women in CEAT also believe diversity and inclusion could be improved by providing and promoting resources devoted to diversity for the OSU community. There was a glaring absence of female representation in the architecture collection, and building the Women in Architecture Collection is one way to provide and promote resources devoted to diversity for the OSU and School of Architecture community.

A small group of library faculty and staff members worked on a grant proposal to fund the collection. Though the grant request was unsuccessful, Dean of Libraries Shelia Johnson elected to infuse the architecture library collection with materials for women and by women in architecture, allocating $12,000 of the Rosalinn Swinka Library Endowment to purchase materials. The addition of these resources ensures that library materials represent women in the architecture profession. If you would like to browse the collection online, the link is: bit.ly/WOMENARCH.

The public showcase was held to celebrate the culmination of over a year’s worth of work to create this important collection. In addition to the display of the 85 new titles, a companion exhibit of course projects by SoA alumnae who are now practicing in the field was displayed in the Cunningham Architecture Library. The exhibit was built as an end-goal encouragement for the female SoA students currently working their way through the B Arch program. The creation of this collection is just the beginning; we will continue the process of adding items to the Cunningham Architecture Library that reflect and represent the students and community we serve.

School News

As shared earlier in this Newsletter, Suzanne Bilbeisi is retiring from OSU this summer which opens the position of Head of the School. Professor John Phillips will be taking on the role of Interim Head, and a search will begin for a new Head of the School this Fall. The ideal candidate has an advanced degree, several years of professional experience, a professional license, and several years of teaching experience. Candidates should have a desire to engage with students, and an area of scholarly interest. Experience in management, and skills in leadership are essential. We need your help locating a candidate ready to lead our school through its next phase!

Travel/Study abroad is ON! This summer we have 50 students (yes, FIFTY!) traveling with our faculty in two distinct program offerings: ‘Europe: Zeitgeist’ in Italy, France, and the Netherlands, with Professors Jerry Stivers, Nathan Richardson, and Mohd Bilbeisi, and ‘Urban Asia’ in Japan and South Korea with Professors Seung Ra and Sarah Ra. Participation in a travel/study program of at least a month is a degree requirement for Architecture majors. If you’d like to support students studying abroad with the SoA, consider giving to the Alumni Travel Abroad Scholarship fund: 2686550 at www.osugiving.com.

The School of Architecture hosted seven faculty candidates this spring, who each provided an open presentation to the students and faculty. These presentations, by default, became a guest lecture series! Additonally, architects Shannon Criss and Nils Gore, founders of Dotte Agency, led a workshop with students as part of an event organized by the SoA Lecture Committee and held in conjunction with Design Week 2023. Dotte Agency is a University of Kansas-led “multidisciplinary design collaborative engaging neighborhoods to shape the built environment to improve public health.”

Our coffee sponsorship program allows professional firms to support free coffee for the students for one month. For the modest fee of $500, firms support the purchase of K-Cups and our students enjoy free coffee! The Spring 2023 coffee sponsors were Mass Architects, Cyntergy, Corgan, and KFC Engineering. Thank you! In exchange for the sponsorships, firms are recognized on our school’s info TVs, and can place firm swag on the coffee cart. If your firm would like more info, email architecture@okstate.edu.

This academic year the school’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee worked to promote a “Centering” project, which highlighted different groups of students in our community - Native American, Black, and Asian. For Women’s month in March, many students, faculty and alumni contributed to a video that was shared on the school’s social media channels. Additionally, at the CEAT DEI Awards Banquet this spring several students were recognized for their contributions in making our school and college a better place. If you would like to assist our DEI initiatives at the School, for example helping to recruit diverse students or supporting student scolarships, let us know! Email achitecture@okstate.edu.

The AIAS Career Fair 2023 was a success! In February, 68 firms came to the Student Union Ballroom to meet and recruit our talented students for summer internships as well as for full time hires. It was a full house! We understand the need is great in the profession, and we thank all who came to interact with our student body. Internships are a vital partner in the process of developing future professionals.

Design Week 2023 occurred April 10-15, with the theme of “WONDER.” Events included an AIA firm crawl in OKC, guest speakers, various class vs class competitions, Pecha Kuchas, a trivia competition, and the annual Honors + Awards program. The week was capped off by the Pig Roast on Friday night.

Faculty and Staff News

Regents Professor Mohd Bilbeisi is also retiring this semester after 25 years on our faculty, which leaves an open position. Look for that faculty search to open later this year - candidates must have an advanced degree in architecture, professional experience, and an area of scholarly interest.

Our faculty have been very productive in speaking engagements, research, and conference publications this spring! Christina McCoy addressed the NASCC Steel Conference in Charlotte. Jared Macken and Paolo Sanza presented at the ACSA Annual Meeting in St. Louis, and Michael Rabens presented at the Society of Architectural into Professional School: 48 Architecture majors, and 24 in Architectural Engineering. We expect nine to progress into our new 4 year BS degree program.

Historians conference in Montreal. Seung Ra and Jay Yowell gave presentations at the Architectural Research Centers Consortium conference in Dallas. Keith Peiffer, Sarah Ra, and Bailey Brown are presenting at the National Conference on the Beginning Design Student in Fargo this May. Alex Campbell will be presenting at the American Society of Engineering Educators conference this summer. Keith Peiffer and Jay Yowell will also be presenting this summer, at the Building Technology Educators Society conference in Phoenix.

In February, Professor Suzanne Bilbeisi was invited to be a session speaker at the national AIA Leadership Summit (formerly Grassroots). Her presentation, prepared jointly with alumnus Scott Cornelius (B Arch 2021), focused on generational values and communication strategies.

Congratulations to Assistant Professor Christina McCoy who was named the 2023 CEAT Excellent Young Teacher! Our long time Admin Associate also received a well-deserved note with the 2023 Staff Outstanding Performance Award. Yay!

Upon completion of her Master of Accounting degree, Staff Support Specialist Gabrielle Morris left the SoA. Gabrielle was our chaos coordinator for four years, and we miss her. Just hired this month and joining our staff are Michelle Hughes at the front desk, and Matthew Shockley as Academic Advisor, who will assist our awesome Advisor Lori Carroll in keeping our 375+ students on track.

Alumni News

Student News

This academic year we graduated a very large group of students: 17 Arch and 4 AEs in fall, and 18 Arch and 19 AEs this spring. That’s a total of 58 graduates in one academic year. Yay!

For this coming Fall we have accepted another large group

Are you attending the A’23 Conference in San Francisco this June? Please join Professor Bilbeisi for an OSU Alumni Reception! Alumna Sarah Turner (B Arch ‘14) and her firm of Sutro Architects will host the Wednesday, June 7th event at their office. RSVP on our LinkedIn or social media channels. Hope to see you there!

Alumni, keep in touch! Email Suzanne.Bilbeisi@okstate.eduyes, she’s keeping her OSU email! Thank you, all, for your years of loyal and true support!